Fathers And Sons
by Luke In Blue
Summary: A walk in the park, a flight of fancy, hell having no fury like a Toad scorned. Kurt'll get used to it.  SLASH WARNING


**Fathers and Sons**

_By: Fala "Ratty Plush Toy" Grier_  
**Written:** October, 2006  
**Fandom:** X-Men Evolution  
**Rating:** PG-13  
**Genre:** Humour/Angst/Romance  
**Pairing(s):** Todd/Kurt  
**Warnings:** Slash (same-sex relations), language, angst and gratuitous melodramatic oversensitivity. Kind of bad, considering it's Todd we're dealing with.

**Plot:** Todd finds himself wanting something very much. Not that this is unusual, except that this time, it is something that Kurt will not and can not give him.

**Spoilers:** None

**Thanks and dedications:** Erm, actually, I didn't have this one beta'd. Soooo, thanks everyone for reading? ; That said, if someone would care to beta for me, I'd love you forever. Let me know if you'd be interested!

**Disclaimers:** Kurt and Todd belong to Warner Brothers, Film Roman and other people who are not me. Technically they also belong to Marvel even though Marvels smells of poo- WhupsImean, even though I'm only following their _X-men Evolution _incarnations. I have merely borrowed them. Rest assured, they will be returned by post at great personal expence.

**Story Notes:** Colour me mad, but I think Todd would actually really like kids. Well, as much as their parents would let him get near them anyway. Don't worry, it's not m-preg, there are no original characters and no actual offspring. Pinky swear.

**Fathers and Sons**

For all that he had given a blithe sneer to the initial approach of the pushchair, not ten seconds later, Todd had all but adhered himself to it, pulling faces and making noises. Kurt had simply smiled and risen from the park bench where they had been sat and perched, respectively. He had been a trifle alarmed when Todd had sprung from the back of the wooden seat and made a beeline for the pushchair, but his apprehension had calmed quickly when the parents looked more pleasantly surprised than anything else. Parents are usually proud to have their offspring fawned over, after all, or so he has heard. Even if the fawner in question happened to wear punk bracers round his wrists and looks like the good ship _Grungemonger_ had run over him. So, Kurt had just come up quietly behind Todd, hands in his pockets as he, too, had a shifty at the pushchair's squirming contents.

One webbed finger was twiddling just over the sullied, miniature mouth, lowering to pop a spit bubble. The baby was wriggling happily beneath a healthy smattering of droolly upchuck round its chin and neck. Todd was mesmerised. With its smooth, gelatinous build and its penchant for producing slimey substances, the little creature could almost pass for amphibian.

"Well look at you! Ain't you a little piece o' work?" He enthused, then treated the proud parents to a very broad and very crooked-yellow grin of approval. Then, the mutant smirked and snickered up them. "Heh, bet you two had tonnes of fun makin' him."

Embarrassed horror dropped like a newborn giraffe into the pit of Kurt's stomach, his holographic complexion paling, then reddening accordingly. Kurt bent to swiftly pull the other mutant to his feet, shooting the newly appalled parents an apologetic look. "Sorry. . . Sorry . . ." He then made short work of sliding an arm about Todd's shoulders, mostly for the purpose of forcefully leading him away.

Once he had efficiently put some distance between the parents and Todd "Tact" Tolensky and they had made some good headway down the path going in the opposite direction, Kurt relaxed his hold and let his arm fall from Todd's shoulders. Jamming both holographically disguised hands into his pockets, Kurt heaved a heavy sigh and looked wearily skyward. The late autumn firmament looked grey and wet with the promise of an equally grey and wet winter. The white clouds were bloated but barren, projecting no sign of rain. "You want a burger or something?" He asked at length.

Todd, however, had completely taken Kurt's obvious, if not fleeting annoyance in stride. He was immune to it by now. Even though Kurt's arm had retreated, Todd's own hands were soon fastening themselves about it, webbed fingers crushing possessively into the wool of his knitted jumper. To Kurt's question, he half replies, half laughs, drawing close. "Nah. I wanna kid."

Kurt looked down at Todd strangely, or rather, he looked down at the crop of filthy brown hair that was awkwardly pressing itself to his shoulder as they walked. For all that Kurt had come to accept (and indeed, fall in love with) Todd's impulsive nature, he couldn't help but question what in holy Hell was going on beneath that hair, in that skull, which would have prompted such a statement. "Vas?" he queried, rather knocked for six. Todd never turned down food. Especially when he wasn't paying for it.

"You heard me, yo." Came the reply, and Todd's fingers dug a bit more into the sleeve of Kurt's jumper. "We should have a kid. C'mon, dawg, you know ye wanna."

Kurt couldn't help but laugh a little incredulously. "You really are insane. And you've forgotten some very basic biology. Not a good combination." He ribbed both literally and figuratively, giving Todd's own ribs a good-humoured poke. They were a frequent target for Kurt's counterattacks, being all too easy to locate.

"Man, I don't mean gettin' preggers or shit like that. I ain't that dumb!" the other mutant retaliated, elbowing Kurt hard in the side for his trouble before resuming his pursuit. "No really, though. I mean, we could, you know, adopt or whatever they call it." He smirked, then added. "Or we could just steal one outta someone's pushchair."

Kurt made a face and let out a sharp bark of laughter. "Okay, I'm convinced. You _are_ insane. And I do believe you may be terrible as well."

"C'moooon!" Todd whined at length, tugging on Kurt's arm. At this point, he was walking pretty much on autopilot, letting Kurt lead, but trying to persuade him into a different, if not metaphorical direction. "I wanna have a kid. Can we? Canwecanwecanwepleeeease? I'll take care of him!" he offered hopefully.

Kurt found himself no little bit mollified. He knew that Todd was quick to decide what he did or did not want and almost as quick to forget it in short enough time, but he still couldn't help but think. And the thought of Todd as a father . . . Well, for lack of a nicer way of putting it, it just wasn't a happener for Kurt. Being eighteen years of age, Todd might, technically, be an adult, but he was an adult by numbers only. Shaking his head and shifting onto autopilot himself, Kurt murmured, "Right, like you could really take care of a kid."

There was a loud crunch of leaves underfoot as Todd looked sharply up, lifting his head from Kurt's shoulder. "What was that?" he asked. Or possibly growled.

There was a pause in which a profound sigh welled up in Kurt's chest. He let it go. "Nothing." He said finally, quietly, marching determinedly forward, moving on.

Todd made a disgusted noise, equally frustrated and unwilling to move on for all that his feet carried him forward. "I can't fucking_ understand_ you! You're not allowed to mumble when you can't even speak proper English in the first place." He said, or, indeed growled. One of his hands dropped from Kurt's arm and the other held on only loosely. Todd shook his head, affronted. "Can't believe you'd say shit like that."

"What?"

"That I couldn't take care of a kid."

"I thought you didn't hear me." Kurt replied acidly and without looking at Todd.

The other mutant was not about to let this go and aggression swelled harshly in his voice like a spiny fish. "Whadda _you_ know anyway? I'd be _damn_ fine father! I _love_ kids! I'm fun, I'm awesome, I could save 'em from bees an' shit!" Todd insisted, gesticulating forcefully with his free hand, webbed fingers curled into a fist. He glared at Kurt, giving him a hard shove in the chest. "Fuck _you_ man, you're a shithead! I'd be a _Hell_ of a fucking goddamned _great_ father AND YOU KNOW IT!"

"Shut up, will you? We're walking by the playground!" Kurt hissed, both at the shove and because he felt that enough poor, delicate sensibilities had been scandalised today.

Todd made a rough, incensed noise in his throat as Kurt shuffled them both forward. "Oh, so now you want to take _them_ away from me, too?" He snapped.

"They're other people's kids! They aren't yours to begin with!" Kurt replied, bewildered. He knew that Todd had a way of losing touch with rational thought when he was angry, but it never failed to boggle him. Frowning, he added. "And they aren't mine to take, either."

"Never will be, right?" Todd came back like a gunslinger, darkly, venomously. "Not so long as I stick wi' the likes o'_ you_, anyway."

"Guess so." Kurt said tiredly, conclusively. They walked on. The litter of childrens' squeals lost itself in the crunch of leaves under their trainers.

When they had reached the park's gates and the noise of the park had faded, yielding to the hum of traffic, Todd sighed. It was a grating, colourless sound. His hand was hanging bonelessly onto the crook of Kurt's arm, more draped over it than anything else. " . . . Yo."

Kurt punched the button at the crosswalk. They stopped to wait. "Ja?"

"You're dumped."

"Again?"

"For real."

"You always say that."

"Whatever." Todd scowled impatiently at the traffic light across the street, waiting for the signal to change for them. These things never changed soon enough, it seemed.

Kurt just watched the traffic sliding by, the shapes and colours glassy and impersonal like fishes' eyes. He thought bitterly to himself, they wouldn't be so unobjective if they could really see, if the digital mask was every bit as transparent as those windows. Kurt had not forgotten how it had been in his small hometown in Germany, before he had been given the gift (the crutch) of innovative disguise. Mutation was still strange there and before the image inducer, he hadn't been able to hide what he was, what people feared, what he could never pass onto another generation. And even though he was not connected to his parents by blood, his genetics had betrayed them. They were guilty by association. The outcry from the community, from the church, from loyal friends who suddenly found themselves quick to abandon, still haunted him. It was a curse that Kurt could never pass onto the next of kin, by blood or otherwise. He couldn't let himself forget that, even if Todd could.

Finally, the cars slowed to a collective halt behind fading, painted lines on the road and the light across the street signalled the two mutants across. As Kurt moved, his steps independent of Todd's own, Todd's hand stayed on his arm. It was defeated, even distant, but he held on. Kurt let him.

End


End file.
